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THE EDITOR: A long wait until Friday to view the next episode of the budget 2022 road show. A very financially attractive fiscal gauntlet has been dropped by Finance Minister Colm Imbert. Can Opposition Leader Kamla Persad-Bissessar tear the seams apart?
Imbert spoke for close to four hours, sustained by only a few sips of water. It was an Oscar-winning performance. His fans loved it. The political fence-sitters in manufacturing and other business sectors who anticipate enjoying his fiscal promises loved him even more. The details of this winning speech is recorded in all three daily newspapers. No need to bore you with the fineprint.
Can the goodly Opposition Leader launch a rebuttal that will win the UNC some brownie points? Imbert is not reputed to cry long tears about not being loved by the Opposition – or anyone else for that matter. Comes with the territory. His explanation about the horrors of TT going to the IMF was enough for me to give him the thumbs up. I certainly did not find any of his rhetoric boring. He was riveting.
Can the PNM government stand and deliver? The show is on the road and there will be no answers until the fat lady sings at general election 2025. The proof will be in the eating of these promised fiscal puddings.
In my view, the only hole in the political gauntlet is if the delta variant overwhelms TT. Several thousand citizens, both adults and children, need to be fully vaccinated for a truly successful reopening of the economy. All the promises of fiscal heaven will not be realised as we will be too ill and unable to breathe.
The viewing public is yet to be advised which parliamentary performers are fully vaccinated. The Opposition Leader has already put out her own rhetoric regarding mandatory vaccination against this deadly pandemic. How well we know in TT that talk, and in particular political talk, is very cheap.

LYNETTE JOSEPH

Diego Martin
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